Divine Path System

Chapter 1752: An Unexpected Reunion

Varian opened his eyes in the present. He read the experiences of the consciousness and it pushed him to the brink.

"Thoren, don’t do it!"

His angry, helpless voice reverberated across God’s Eye.

[V-Varian...what happened?]

(Calm down! Var, calm down!)

The slivers started panicking. Since he reached this strength, Varian never lost his cool.

He flew from one edge to another of the region, eyes wandering, hands clenching and loosening. His chest was heaving violently and his eyes were bloodshot.

He looked like he survived the worst nightmare.

"I shouldn’t have..." He muttered in a daze as he flew around like a headless fly.

[Shouldn’t have what?]

"I shouldn’t have tried to change the past." Varian paused, his body freezing as if time itself had stopped.

Samsara was worried sick watching his condition. (Var, you did what you believed was best. I don’t know what happened, but you didn’t intend for any harm.)

Varian blinked at her words, the guilt in his eyes slowly decreasing. "No matter what it led to, I was trying to solve a big problem."

[So, what exactly happened?] Logos asked.

"See for yourself." Varian snapped and his experiences were fed directly to the slivers.

Even the vastly experienced slivers were shocked at such an event.

[History has not been changed. It’s only followed.] Logos sighed.

"I was too eager about God Emperor that I didn’t think about the implications at all." Varian said with a wry chuckle.

"If I can time travel, even as a consciousness, why can’t I just go back to my past self and help him out?

I can’t give much help, but I can still change plenty of things. And just do it again and again and again."

[So the time travel shouldn’t have been possible?]

Varian nodded.

A peak rank 2 still shouldn’t be able to travel to the past. The river of time was supposed to reject his consciousness from going back altogether.

But a power intervened and made it happen.

(Architect allowed you to travel back.) Samsara muttered, astonished. (Like God Emperor, he also wants the slivers fused.)

They both had different goals, but they both agreed that the universe must be destroyed. And for that, the slivers must be fused.

"Am I going to lead to this catastrophic destruction?" Varian looked down at the gaping hole that kept expanding.

His new clone was working hard to keep it under control, but the void was relentless. It kept growing stronger and stronger.

The clone, a newbie peak rank 2, was visibly dying.

"What’s done is done. I will have to do what I must do." Varian muttered, the guilt in his eyes turning into determination.

God Emperor was relatively young when he made the decision to tamper with Varian’s fate. Now, billions of years passed. It’s impossible to change his mind.

The only thing the could do was grow stronger.

Strong enough to close this void tear.

Strong enough to beat down Architect.

*** *** ***

Varian threw himself into research.

The bottleneck to rank 3 wasn’t loosening. The research on origin hit a wall.

The only thing that showed promise of immediate improvement was the research on the forbidden regions.

His understanding of their workings increased day by day.

The regions in Hortus helped him understand their cosmic counterparts and that new understanding helped him progress further in Hortus regions, forming a positive feedback loop.

His wives were also working hard.

Aurora and Isadora were researching on origin. Sarah, Enigma and Sia were helping with the forbidden regions.

A few months later, one fine evening, Sarah said. "You’re running back and forth. It’d be great if you brought the forbidden regions into Hortus."

"You know what? You’re kinda right." Varian was delighted.

That opened up a new direction in research he knew but didn’t pay much attention to.

Hortus, as the cosmic seed, was designed to devour the universe and replace it one day.

Even when he was just a celestial ranker, he was able to place the solar system’s planets inside.

He could place a lot more inside now. But it’s not just adding things that he wanted .

He had to find a way for Hortus to devour the whole cosmos. Since he’s the ruler of Hortus, he’d have the natural authority over this new universe.

The sheer power would be enough to fight the Architect and hopefully, win.

It’s the ultimate goal. But he was also realistic about the next step.

"It can’t devour the universe. I don’t know why. Even the primordial gods didn’t know. There is something to be solved. But I can try make it devour the cosmic forbidden regions. That is very likely to work."

It was all coming together.

The forbidden regions of both the cosmos and Hortus were created by the same primordial gods. So was Hortus.

With slivers acting as the channels, Varian realized he could indeed fuse these two.

It’s no longer just ’bringing’ these regions and putting them in space somewhere.

It’s integrating the cosmic version with the hortus version!

And as a result, his own power would greatly increase.

Would it touch rank 3? Varian was pretty sure it wouldn’t.

But perhaps it could help in gradually breaking the bottleneck?

Or maybe he could see what’s preventing Hortus from devouring the universe.

"The fusion can happen in minutes or days." Varian gathered everyone. "I might not be available. So, if there is any task to deal with, tell me now."

Sarah shook her head gently while Sia thought hard and shrugged. Enigma and Isadora said nothing. Aurora looked around, as if she wanted to pretend she wasn’t here.

Boo, who was called back from a cosmic trip, looked conflicted for a moment before saying. "Master, Primula has been acting crazy these days."

Varian raised a brow. "About her mother?"

"Yes! Yes!" Boo nodded fervently. "She was frequently traveling across Eden and asked me for help. I was with her for a few days. Suddenly, she starts crying and calling her name."

"I see, thank you Boo." Varian patted the little ghost. "Continue your adventure. If you need any help, invoke the power I stationed in the ship."

"Hehehe~" The ghost chuckled before vanishing.

Varian glanced at his wives and they nodded.

With a twist of space, he appeared outside the former Nexus region. Today, it’s split into multiple administrative blocks and ruled rather peacefully.

But while 95% were peaceful, the 5% of this region were the worst rebels of Eden. Primula had to frequently visit the place to deal with them.

Even now, she’s in a palace, discussing the rebellion affairs with a few overseers.

"Primula."

As he uttered those words, she looked up in confusion before a smile broke on her face. The officers were stunned at their stern leader smiling.

She turned to them and her smile vanished as if it never appeared. "Focus on the I’ll see you later."

With that, Primula appeared in front of Varian and asked with a grin. "What’s up, brother? Did you finally remember you have a sister?"

Varian pinched her cheek. "What about you? Shouldn’t you tell me when something happens?"

"Noshing shwappend." She tried to reply.

"Primula." Varian ruffled her hair affectionally but his tone grew serious. "Some things shouldn’t be hidden."

"But." Primula lowered her head. "I thought I was getting over her. I never saw her anyway, why was I even like this?

I should be able to get over her. I did get over, for some time. But then...then...I start hearing her voice again.

I see her smile. I feel her soul. It’s as if she’s still there.

It’s my racial connection—it allows me to feel the people of my race, especially my close ones.

It was supposed to be only for the living. But I can feel her existence. I know it’s false, but I feel it. I don’t know why.

It’s as if...a part of her is still there somewhere."

Varian frowned. If the whole affair was not about emotions but a soul connection due to racial talent, then he should be able to detect what’s going on.

"Focus on that feeling."

He placed a hand over her head and sank his consciousness into her soul.

It’s different from most beings. There were multiple special patterns that manifested as talents.

One of those talents was this soul connection. In a corner, beyond the senses of even the sharpest rank 1 was a thread, a manifestation of that connection.

Soon, he noticed many such threads.

Each thread was leading to someone of Primula’s race.

But only one thread, a very faint one which even most high rank 2s would miss, was pointing towards something else.

And that aura was familiar.

"Why is it still there?" Varian was shocked.

It was Eshala Starlight’s aura, no doubt about it.

It wasn’t just her remnant aura. He could also sense her soul. Bits and pieces of her spiritual power.

This was impossible!

She was killed by God Emperor himself, long long ago.

"Primula, stay here. I’ll check."

Varian jumped through space and landed in the borders of Eden.

And it was indeed as he saw. A faint trace of Eshala’s soul.

"Ah."

She wasn’t alive. But a part of her soul was preserved here, like a shard.

It was spinning in the darkness as it gave out purple light. And with them, hundreds of thousands of such shards, glowing with their own light.

"Some of them are familiar..."

Varian raised a finger to tap Eshala’s shard and hopefully figure out what’s going on.

As he was about to, a voice rang from behind.

"You’re early."

Varian turned around swiftly, his heart racing.

God Emperor stood there, in full glory.

No more a clone.

No more a body covered by silver light.

His true self. With that same face he saw not long ago.

With vitality on the verge of depletion but strength at the very peak.

"Long time no see, Varian...no, teacher."

It was a reunion Varian didn’t anticipate.